1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a slim optical projection system and an image display apparatus employing the same, and more particularly, to a slim optical projection system that projects an image produced by a display onto a screen with a wide viewing angle and provides improved image quality by correcting distortions caused by the wide viewing angle projection and an image display apparatus employing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image display apparatus includes a display that turns on and off a lamp-type light source to emit light for a plurality of pixels in order to create a color image and an optical projection system that enlarges and projects the color image onto a screen. Since the demand for image display apparatuses having large screens, a high resolution, and slim designs has increased, research has been actively conducted to satisfy this demand.
In order to achieve a slim image display apparatus, an optical projection system generates a bundle of light rays at a wide viewing angle. However, when the optical projection system is located at a center of the screen, the viewing angle of the bundle of projected light rays generated by the optical projection system can only be increased to a limited degree. FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a conventional image display apparatus. Referring to FIG. 1, in order to increase a viewing angle of a bundle of light rays generated by an optical projection system 20, the optical projection system 20 is disposed obliquely on a lower portion of a screen 40. An image produced by an optical engine 10 is enlarged and projected by the optical projection system 20 and is incident on a reflective mirror 30. The image reflected from the reflective mirror 30 is projected onto the screen 40.
When the image that emanates from the optical projection system 20 is reflected to the screen 40 by the reflective mirror 30 as described above, the image from the optical projection system 20 should be diffused at a very large angle, since a thickness of the image display apparatus is very small. However, a portion of the image that is projected at the wide angle by the optical projection system 20 disposed onto a lower portion of the screen 40 tends to undergo distortions, which can degrade an image quality. Thus, it is technically difficult to provide an image display apparatus with a large screen, a high image quality, and a slim design.